radicalducati Page 135
Page 135
"They're all dead?"
Alice's eyes widened.
Rijrud also looked surprised and doubtful, muttering, "Are the monsters here so strong? How could they wipe out such a group of powerful adventurers in an instant?"
【SuperBlaze】is a B-rank adventurer team. Their strength is enough to eliminate A-rank monsters, and even S-rank monsters may not be able to escape their grasp.
The fact that such a group of valiant adventurers all perished is enough to show just how terrifying the monsters in this forest must be.
"No, something's not right."
Shirou shook his head.
He dismissed the conjecture and silently approached the adventurers' corpses. After a brief investigation, he concluded, "It wasn't monsters that killed these people, or rather, it wasn't just monsters."
"what?"
Alice and Ridge Rudd stared in astonishment, unable to comprehend it.
Shirou took a deep breath and said urgently, "Let's go, catch up with those bastards, the Guren team! If they go back to the city, they'll be in real danger!"
"why?"
Alice, not understanding the situation, spoke up in confusion.
Shirou spoke up as quickly as possible: "The monsters in the forest aren't wild at all, but artificially bred by the adventurers of Ricaris Town. And those who just killed Blaze and the others weren't monsters either, but people—it was the adventurers of Ricaris Town who did it!!"
Chapter 191 Either I die, or all of you die!
"what?!"
Shirou's words surprised both Rigel and Alice.
Neither of them expected the other to say such a shocking thing, and for a moment they couldn't believe it. After all, Shirou's words were without any evidence and were too incredible.
Shirou had no intention of explaining further; he just wanted to catch up with the Guren team of boys as soon as possible.
Just as he was about to act, he suddenly sensed something and quickly pulled Ridge Rudd and Alice along to hide in the shade of the trees in the forest.
Although Rachel Rudd and Alice did not know why he did it, they still followed his instructions.
"..."
After a brief wait, several rustling figures appeared in the forest. They were all dressed as adventurers. After searching the area several times but finding no one, they showed expressions of disappointment. Finally, they exchanged a few words, stomped their feet, and left.
Before leaving, they also cleaned up the bodies of the adventurers from the [SuperBlaze] team to prevent any trace of their corpses from remaining at the scene.
After watching the adventurers leave, Shirou immediately followed them deeper into the forest.
What came into view was a large, coiled snake.
The giant serpent was pinned to the ground by a sharp sword, its body bound by various chains.
Due to various constraints, its magic continued to emanate, leaving it unable to live or die.
As the magical power of high-level monsters dissipated, it continuously altered the surrounding environment, ultimately triggering a transformation throughout the petrified forest.
"This……"
Ridge Rudd and Alice were both dumbfounded when they saw this.
Neither of them expected such an unbelievable scene to unfold in the deepest part of the forest.
Shirou spoke calmly: "While monsters may be born in ordinary forests, mutations won't keep happening indefinitely without a source of magic. If a forest is constantly producing new monsters, even causing the forest itself to mutate, it means that there is a source of magic within the forest that is causing all the problems. That usually means that the monsters are of an excessively high level."
As Shirou spoke, he recalled the red dragon that had appeared in the Buena Forest.
It was because of the sudden attack of the red dragon that the peaceful forest of Buyena Village suddenly underwent various strange changes, and monster uprisings occurred one after another.
Just as the Crimson Dragon was the source of the magical mutation in the Buena Forest, the source of the mutation in this petrified forest is naturally this giant serpent.
Unlike the red dragon that accidentally ended up in the Buena Forest, this giant serpent was clearly deliberately placed here, causing the entire forest to be strange.
"Why? Why do you do this?"
Alice and Rigdl could not understand it.
Especially Alice.
Having very little knowledge of this world, she couldn't understand why anyone would capture a monster here, or even cause the entire forest to become distorted.
"The reason is probably to make passing caravans pay high sums of money to hire adventurers."
Shirou calmly stated his conjecture, "According to the guild manager, merchants in Licaris Town often post commissions to clear the monsters from the petrified forest in order to create a safe passage. This would ensure the safety of caravans and reduce the need to waste too much money on hiring bodyguards."
"But this was undoubtedly an act that touched the interests of the adventurers in Licaris Town, so the merchants' demands not only could not be resolved, but the adventurers began to intensify their efforts after discovering this way to make money."
"Of course, occasionally there will be adventurers from other places, or new adventurers who are not aware of the situation and unintentionally accept the commission to deal with forest monsters. In such cases, the adventurers of Licaris Town will unite to eliminate these bad elements that may damage their interests."
"Take the [SuperBlaze] just now, for example. With the strength of their B-rank adventurer team, even if they face B-rank or A-rank monsters, they will not be in any danger and will not be wiped out. But if the opponent is not a monster, but an adventurer of the same rank or even a higher rank, then the situation is completely different."
Essentially, this incident is no different from the previous case where Shirou and his friends reported adventurers for capturing pets, staging the whole thing, and swindling money from their clients.
Adventurers, in order to earn income, may not have enough commissions to accept, so they can simply create their own commissions and raise bandits to maintain their own influence.
Capturing a host's pet and creating monsters in the Petrified Forest are essentially the same thing: creating a commission and having that commission to execute.
Ordinary people who make the requests naturally have no idea how dark the situation is. In the end, they will only think that the adventurers are very reliable and that the requests are completed smoothly.
All darkness can be completely hidden in the shadows if all adventurers unite.
This is undoubtedly why the adventurers in Ricaris Town are so xenophobic, and why they caused Shirou and his companions all sorts of trouble on their very first day of arrival.
The reason why the horse-headed man named Nokbara came to contact Shirou and his group so many times was essentially just to scare away these adventurous people who were considered enemies.
“This is too much.”
Upon learning the truth, Alice's eyes widened in disbelief. She never imagined that someone would do such a despicable thing for profit.
Although Alice is not exactly a champion of justice, she still cannot allow such a heinous act to happen.
"..."
Rachel Rudd remained silent throughout the entire conversation.
But Shirou sensed that the trident the other was holding was being used with increasing force.
As a fellow righteous man of equal standing, Rachel Rudd would obviously not allow such a heinous act to happen before his eyes.
Especially since they hadn't stopped them just now, all the henchmen of the Foolish Company would have died.
The adventurers of Licaris Town have committed so many despicable acts that the number of out-of-town adventurers they have killed is countless.
Among them were many like the Foolish Company, fresh out of school, still harboring fantasies about the future, only to meet their deaths inexplicably.
Rachel Rudd could not allow such a group of villains to live in this world.
"Let's go back quickly, we can't let the children get hurt."
In a moment, Rijerud realized the urgency of the situation. If the Fools returned to town now, they would likely be persecuted by the local adventurers of Licaris.
Shirou wasn't in a hurry. The children of the Guren Team were weak and probably wouldn't be targeted too much. Besides, they hadn't even come into contact with the core of the petrified forest and were unaware of the conspiracy.
Therefore, Shirou did not rush to leave, but instead walked towards the giant monster serpent in front of him.
"This should be an A-rank monster, the Red-Eating Serpent."
Based on his research on monsters, Shirou recognized the monster's identity.
The Red-Eating Serpent is a higher-level species of the White-Fanged Serpent. Even though it is impossible to determine what the White-Fanged Serpent ingested to mutate into the Red-Eating Serpent, there is a very small chance that it will appear in the place where the White-Fanged Serpent lives.
It not only has a larger body than the White Fang Serpent, but its agility is also far superior.
Its entire body is covered in hard scales that are resistant to fire, and its sharp teeth are highly venomous, making it an extremely ferocious monster.
The fact that such a monster is so tightly confined here is enough to prove that the person who made the move is definitely stronger than an A-level adventurer.
There might be a Saint-level opponent.
But Shirou didn't care.
"Let's kill it first and resolve the anomaly here."
Shirou drew the demon sword, Orifu, from his waist and slashed directly at the monster's head.
Because the giant snake was bound, it was unable to move at all and offered no resistance. In other words, the monster itself had lost its will to live, and Shirou's actions actually made it feel liberated.
After Shirou dealt with the monsters, the anomaly in the petrified forest was resolved almost instantly.
The heavy magic that filled the surrounding environment gradually dissipated.
"Let's go back."
Shirou then spoke of returning home.
As soon as he finished speaking, Alice and Rigdl's bodies tensed instinctively.
After all, they were all aware of how dangerous the journey back to Licaris would be and what kind of extreme crisis they would encounter later.
But no one said they wanted to run away.
Even Alice, after seeing so many dead people, has come to understand to some extent how heavy the word "justice" truly is.
……
When Shirou and the others returned to Ricaris Town, it was almost dusk.
They encountered no risks along the way.
They didn't even encounter any extra people.
They returned to the Adventurers' Guild and, under the watchful eyes of the adventurers, went to the guild's counter, presented the evidence of the mission, and completed the task.
Of course, Shirou didn't tell everyone about everything that happened in the forest.
Most of the information about the adventurers' actions in Ricaris Town was just Shirou's speculation; he had no evidence to prove that the adventurers were the ones who did it.
And he really doesn't need to prove it.
Because this matter has progressed to a point where it can no longer be resolved simply by reporting it to the Adventurers' Guild.
"Congratulations on completing the task. The reward is here."
The clerk handed Shirou the money and the adventurer's card.
Shirou nodded and silently turned his head away.
As a result, they encountered the horse-headed man, Nokbara, right in front of them.
The other person's face was extremely gloomy, even terrifying. He stared intently at Shirou's face and the card indicating that Shirou had completed the mission, and said:
"You actually completed the mission?"
"Yes, that monster was trapped for some reason, so it was easy to deal with."
"..."
Shirou's overly naive reaction stunned Nocbara, who fell silent.
But he quickly realized from Shirou's expression that the boy in front of him was not an ignorant fool; the boy had acted only after knowing everything.
"So you really intend to make enemies of all the adventurers in our city, right?"
"It's not that I want to be your enemy, but you've already set your sights on us, haven't you?"
"Because you did things you shouldn't have done."
Nokbara looked at Shirou with a disappointed expression, and said somewhat defensively, "I told you guys long ago, don't do missions you shouldn't do, don't get into trouble you shouldn't get into. Some things won't happen if you don't say them, but once you say them, no one can change your mind!"
"what do you mean?"
"You're going to die soon, and no one can save you!"
"Okay, then I'll wait."
Shirou looked at Nocbara's face without changing his expression. "If you want to kill me, then come on, but on the condition that I don't kill you all!"
"Kid, you think you can kill us all?!"
Whether or not it can be done is not determined by what you say, but by what you actually do.
As Shirou spoke, he drew the demon sword, Orifu, from his waist.
"Pfft!"
At the same time, all the demon adventurers in the entire Adventurers' Guild stood up menacingly, their imposing manner far more exaggerated than the previous brawl.
After all, this matter concerns the interests of everyone.